While the start of the 2017 Formula One season and the first round of fly-away races have not been easy for the McLaren-Honda team, they are looking forward to returning to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend.
Unfortunately the Woking based squad doesn't anticipate a huge change of fortunes at this race, but getting Stoffel Vandoorne to the end of the race in Sochi was a small reward for all the hard work being put in behind the scenes to address their reliability issues, and hopefully a sign of more positive things to come for the team.
Like the majority of teams, McLaren will be taking this opportunity to introduce some new elements to the car, and, with the enthusiasm of the Spanish fans behind them, they are hoping they will be able to complete some solid running and see an improvement in their reliability.
“Although we weren't proud of our performance at the Russian Grand Prix, we could still take some positives from the weekend and I'm pleased I was able to finish the race, after a few tough weekends. It was important for me to get some more mileage under my belt, and we managed to gather a lot of valuable information, which is helping to shape the development of both the chassis and the power unit as we continue through the season,” Stoffel said.
“I'm looking forward to starting the European season at the Spanish Grand Prix. I know the circuit well from previous races I've done there and of course from pre-season testing, and we have a lot of useful data about the track and the way the car behaves there. Hopefully this will mean we can start the weekend on a positive note and have a smooth weekend. “
“The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a fun track to drive, and pretty fast, so it's quite demanding for both the car and the driver. It's very tricky to overtake there, and, as it's a quick track, average speed is quite high, so it'll be a challenging one for us. It's traditionally a circuit that's tough on tyres, but I'm interested to see how the new compounds will change how the race unfolds. As always, though, I'm ready for the challenge and excited to go racing again.”
